Portugal is once again at the forefront of European defense against drug trafficking. In various uncoordinated operations across the country the GNR (National Republican Guard) made a grand total of twenty-five arrests, based on the enforcement of eighty-one warrants.


As a result, more than seven hundred doses of cocaine were seized, alongside one hundred and twenty-three kilograms of hashish, four firearms, and over thirty-two thousand Euros in cash.


The largest of these operations, enacted in the city of Santa Maria da Feira, was the product of a two year-long investigation involving two hundred and twenty-five GNR military staff, working across six territorial jurisdictions and supported by the PSP (Public Safety Police) police forces.


The actions by police in Portugal reflect findings in this year’s European Drug Report which found that ‘both the number of seizures and the volumes seized´ of cocaine in the continent have reached unprecedented figures.


The report highlights the emergence of smaller groups into the market, coupled with innovative ways of using technological tools such as social media or cryptocurrencies, as being partly responsible for the increase.


Cannabis also held a prominent spot in the report, which labelled it ‘one of the longest-established drugs in Europe’. The illicit substance was also mentioned with regards to the ever-increasing prominence it is having within the context of international policy shifts geared at exploring its alleged therapeutic benefits.


Over two thirds of all seizures made in the European Union were made across the UK, Spain and France, with cannabis accounting for over sixty per cent of the goods intercepted by police forces across the continent.


The Director for the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, Alexis Goosdeel, claims that ‘not only are there signs of increased availability of established plant-based drugs like cocaine, but we are also witnessing an evolving market where synthetic drugs and drug production within Europe are growing in importance.’